Chapter 12

Gasps of breath rose from all around. No one who could call Redic Bangeger by name would frequent a tavern like this. Only then did people begin to look over the unfamiliar man who had just walked in.

He certainly did not look like a commoner. And his presence was on an entirely different level from Redic Bangeger’s.

“What? Who—hurk.”

Redic Bangeger, who had been making a drunken nuisance of himself while bumping his head against the man’s chest, lifted his head. The fog that had clouded his mind until just a moment ago cleared in an instant.

People were now watching the confrontation between the two with interest. There was more than one person who had been hoping for a day like this.

“…Th-that’s not it.”

Redic Bangeger, sweating profusely, grew paler and paler.

The man let out a sigh and pressed firmly on Redic’s shoulder, pushing him away. Redic Bangeger retreated obediently, just as the man willed.

“It seems you have time to sit around drinking in a place like this.”

“…What brings you to such a humble place?”

Redic Bangeger already had wronged him. And to run into him without having offered a single word of apology for it.

Pavel looked down at him silently. The gaze—troubled, as though at an insect—made Redic’s shoulders flinch.

“…I apologize.”

At Redic’s docile apology, like a thoroughly scolded child, people’s eyes went wide with astonishment.

What on earth had gotten into that drunkard to make him apologize? Who was this man, really?

“Let’s hear exactly what it is you’re apologizing for.”

When Pavel leisurely pulled out a chair and sat, Redic’s face went pale. He hesitated, about to take the seat across from Pavel, but he could not.

“I don’t care to face you, so keep standing.”

“Y-yes. I understand.”

Unfortunately, Redic Bangeger could feel his mind growing clearer by the moment. He swept his gaze around once. The very people he had looked down on and cursed at without hesitation were now watching him as though he were an amusing spectacle.

Redic’s face flushed crimson with shame. Pavel simply watched as his face blotched red and pale in real time.

“There are so many people here, so perhaps we could go outside…”

“I would much rather hear it right here.”

For some reason, Pavel spoke skillfully to the owner, asking for a drink. The owner felt he could have given that man several drinks for free right now. Delighted, he happily brought out the liquor.

“I heard you made a drunken spectacle of yourself at the banquet not long ago.”

“You have a talent for speaking of what you did as though someone else did it.”

At Pavel’s biting words, Redic shut his mouth.

“I don’t remember it well…”

“You apologize so well for something you don’t even remember.”

“……”

Now that he was fully sober, Redic could not understand why Pavel had appeared in a place like this. Had he come looking for him? If so, why? Just to receive an apology?

Imperial Grandson Pavel was not a man who would travel to a place like this himself over a single apology.

Which meant the true reason lay elsewhere. No matter how hard Redic Bangeger racked his brain, he could not figure it out.

“Have you apologized to Erdona?”

“Pardon?”

“The apology for that thing you don’t remember.”

For an instant, Pavel’s dark green eyes seemed to stretch vertically like a snake’s. A chill ran down Redic Bangeger’s spine, but he struggled to maintain his composure.

Only Pavel’s voice echoed through the silent tavern.

“Why should I…”

Redic nearly asked why he should apologize to Erdona, then closed his mouth.

Pavel said nothing. He drained his glass in one go and paid far more than the price of a single drink. Then he rose and stood before Redic Bangeger.

Redic trembled all over like a rat caught in a trap as Pavel looked down at him with an overwhelming presence.

“There is one thing I want. Whether it’s an apology or whatever else—never set foot in Erdona again.”

That was what Redic Bangeger wanted as well. Darkness fell over Redic’s face once more. Pavel spoke in a tone as calm as though remarking on the fine weather.

“If you don’t finalize the broken engagement, I’ll have no choice but to resort to harsher methods. Surely you don’t wish to die suddenly a year after inheriting your title.”

“……”

“Surely you understand by now. If we meet like this again, there will be none of today’s kindness.”

I wanted to protest that today had been anything but kind, but I could not. Redic understood what those words meant. It meant never to show his face in the capital again.

Only after the jingling of the bell did Redic realize that Pavel had left the tavern.

It was the owner who shattered the heavy silence.

“Kahahaha! Hahahah!”

Starting with the owner, hearty laughter filled the tavern. The more they laughed, the redder Redic Bangeger’s face grew.

At last, he kicked the door open and stormed out. Mockery clung to Redic’s back like a shadow.

* * *

Gizelle wanted to drive Saya out of Erdona at any cost. And once she did, she felt she would finally be satisfied.

At times, she even wondered whether her father had made a mistaken judgment in his final moments. That wretch, of all people, being of help to her—there was no way.

But the situation had changed. Saya wanted to leave this place of her own accord.

If Gizelle drove her out now, it would be no different from doing Saya a favor.

‘I absolutely cannot allow that.’

Gizelle greeted Kirill as usual. Kirill immediately looked around Gizelle’s office.

Gizelle looked terribly worn. A barrier ritual was soon to be held at the imperial palace. Kirill knew well that she had many things to prepare for it.

“That too, but there’s something else that worries me more.”

Gizelle smiled at Kirill as though to say she was fine. Of course, the more she did, the more his heart ached for her.

“What is it? Perhaps it’s something I can help with.”

“…Well.”

As though unable to resist his words, she opened her mouth.

By the time Gizelle finished speaking, Kirill’s face had turned grave. She had expected this reaction to some degree, but Gizelle nearly forgot what she had been about to say and pressed him.

“That must worry you.”

“Yes. Why don’t you try talking to her, Kirill? Saya might think it over more if it comes from you.”

Gizelle’s words were subtle. Just like before, when she had urged Saya’s engagement through Kirill.

Kirill felt as though something had lodged in his throat. That Saya was trying to leave Erdona.

The words Gizelle hesitantly let out drove Kirill into shock. Kirill forced a smile, but that was his limit. In his mind floated only that single phrase—that Saya was leaving Erdona.

‘Leave Erdona and go where?’

Saya had no family. Erdona was her family. There was nowhere Saya could go if she left Erdona.

Setting all that aside, the most shocking fact was that Saya had tried to leave without a single word to Kirill.

“There’s nowhere for Saya to go.”

“I’ll try talking to her.”

“Thank you, Kirill.”

All Gizelle had to do was smile faintly with a weary look on her face.

* * *

I did not know what Pavel knew that made him act as he did, but the next day, a formal document requesting the annulment arrived from Bangeger.

‘What is this?’

If Pavel took an interest in my broken engagement, there was only one reason.

‘It must be because I harmed Gizelle.’

It was the same this time. And it was not an ordinary broken engagement but one caused by a scandal, so Erdona had suffered no small damage as well.

Perhaps he had helped Gizelle.

‘So there are days when Pavel helping Gizelle actually helps me.’

When my problems put Gizelle in difficulty, Kirill and Pavel help her.

In the past, when Pavel and Kirill helped Gizelle, I would grow angry at the thought that my plans to trouble her had failed once again. Not anymore.

‘Perhaps because what I want is not Gizelle’s suffering.’

Now that even the broken engagement was settled, I was truly at the final stage of my plan. Once I heard news about Chadie, I could leave Erdona at any time.

That fact struck me anew.

“My lady, I’ve been thinking, and this one is… Augh. My lady, I can’t breathe!”

Kirill had not even thought that he himself needed to go on an ‘estate inspection.’ Yet Saya spoke as though she knew exactly when he was supposed to go.

Saying that he felt guilt toward her because his body ached.

That was wrong. His pain had nothing to do with this guilt.

“When you return from the estate inspection, we’ll talk then. If you still want to talk to me then, I won’t avoid you.”

Though she said that, Saya no longer looked like someone who would stop caring about him. Saya was merely trying to appear that way. Even though she did not want to.

Kirill decided not to believe everything Saya said. Everything except the fact that she liked him. Believing Saya’s confession was better than believing that she would leave him behind.

Only by doing so could he erase the inexplicable discomfort that had come from somewhere.